Narginball
Narginball or also called Boyuk Ziraball '''is and Island in the Caspian Sea belonging to '''Azerbaijan ����. He is part of the Baku Archipelago 'name after the capital of '''Azerbaijan ���� '. He is located in '''Baku bay. Narginball 'is the largest island the separates the '''Bay of Baku '''And the sea south of the ' Absheron Peninsula. History of Narginball A beacon in the island began to function on December 11, 1884. The beacon was constructed in the southern stretch of the island and provided ships with an opportunity to enter Baku bay at night. The beacon is a stone residential building with three-metered tower on a roof, along with a lamp. A kerosene-wick burner, and then a gas lamp with a light-optic apparatus of the 4th degree, which was specially produced in Sweden, illuminates a way for ships. In 1941, because of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the building of the beacon was blown up by order of the Soviet Military Command. Anti - aircraft guns were established on the island to defend Baku from German air raids, because the building of the beacon was a potential landmark for German aviators. The beacon was restored in 1958 and still functions. An 18m, stone tower equipped with a complex optical-navigational system, was built in the elevated middle part of the island. Servicing of the way is carried out by a watching method and personnel are changed every two weeks. The beacon's light is seen 20–30 km from Baku. The beacon's power is provided by solar batteries, which gives a charge up to 7 days and also by a diesel generator.4 World War 1 Nargin Islandball hosted tragic events in the history of Azerbaijan and Turkey during World War I. About 10 thousand soldiers, as well as civilians, who were captured in 1914-1915 in Turkey during the occupation of Eastern Anatolia by the Russian army, were in captivity on the island. The captives died of starvation, snake bites, and murder and torture by prison guards. According to Hasan Cüneyt Zapsu, a deputy and counselor of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkey, his grandfather Abdurrahim Rahmi Zapsu was imprisoned on Nargin Islandball and escaped with the help of a nurse. Vecihi Hürkuş – a Turkish pilot also escaped from the island with assistance of local residents and a film dedicated to him is intended to be shot in Turkey.5 A documentary exposing the tragedy Turkish soldiers endured in Nargin islandball in the early 20th century, was shot by order of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey. Archive documents and scenes of those years, and also memories of 11 Turkish soldiers, who were in camps in Nargin Islandball and returned to the motherland alive, were used in the film called “Hellish Nargin Islandball”. In recent years, erection of a monument to the perished Turkish soldiers in Nargin Islandball is frequently proposed by Turkhan Çomez, a deputy of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and others.67 Victims of repressionsEdit Nargin Island was called the Azerbaijani gulag during the Stalin-era repression. It was the place of mass shootings and burying of Stalin-Beria terror victims, who were brought there in barges. Ten thousands of people condemned by judicial communist “trios” were shot on the island, far from witnesses. Sometimes, barges full of people were sunk in order to save ammunition. According to scuba divers, there are still remains of people, tortured by the Soviet regime, tied with chains under water.